New-look game drive vehicle



The original (sorry about the photo!)

When we bought the Lodge in 2008, the game drive vehicle that came with it, a somewhat dilapidated old Toyota land cruiser, was white with zebra stripes.  The stripes were quickly removed, leaving it a rather stand-out white. 

White for the last 3 years, plus the new ladders fitted

Undercoat

Changing it has long been on our task list and we have finally got round to carrying out the threat.  At long last we have an environmentally friendly green colour, with our logo on the doors, and with ladders on the side so that guests can climb up to the seats with relative ease.  We have also added wooden trim to the doors and the cab area as well as wooden arm rests at the back.  There was a huge amount of work involved, building the ladders (like giant meccano), preparing the body work for painting and the actual painting itself and shaping and fitting the wooden sections.  The spare tyre has been fitted in neatly under the rear seat.  All told, we can now take guests out with pride and with confidence that we at least look the part!

The finished green vehicle, with logo, trim and all

Aloes and sunbirds

One of the delights of the lowveld winters, apart from the sunshine, the dry air and the warm (but not hot) temperatures, is that the aloes come into flower.  This in turn attracts sunbirds to the Lodge gardens.  Most frequent are the white-bellied sunbirds (Cynnyris talatala).  As the name suggests, both sexes have a white or off-white belly:  the remainder of the female’s plumage is white below and brownish on top.  The male, however, has dark wings above and a brilliant metallic green head, throat and mantle with iridescent stripes in purple and blue on the breast.  The male sings loudly (incredibly so for such a small bird) throughout the day – a monotonous and often-repeated ‘chuee-chuee-chuee’. They feed on nectar from the aloe flowers and their long bills are ideally shaped to reach it.

White-bellied sunbird (male)

Many other birds are drawn to the gardens as well at this time, frequently visiting the birdbath and the bigger birdpool.  Blue waxbills, various fire-finches, green-winged ptylias and many others.  Our resident African barred owlet is still about and often roosts in the gardens during the day.

Green-winged ptylia

African barred owlet

Blue waxbill



Jameson's firefinch

Winter animals

We have been enjoying typical lowveld winter weather of late:  cold nights and crisp mornings with dry, sunny days that are warm but not too hot.  The cold in the early mornings has resulted in some beautiful inversion layers with mist blanketing the valley below the lodge and the ridge poking through behind.

After the wet months of April and May (when game animals were widely distributed and visiting permanent water only infrequently) the dryness of the last six weeks has increasingly led to animals visiting our waterhole in numbers. We have seen large groups of zebra (20 or so), large herds of impala, wildebeest, kudu (groups of 4, 6 and 8), duiker, warthogs and giraffe. 

One giraffe group included a mother and one of the smallest calves we have ever seen.  It was fascinated by the water in the waterhole, peering intently at it in the classic giraffe drinking position but then running back to mother at the slightest noise or gust of wind.  We couldn’t tell whether it was actually drinking but we saw it suckling from its mother so we suspect it was curiosity as much as thirst. 

A grey heron has spent several evenings at the waterhole as well and the days see an almost endless procession of guinea fowl.